Study Ranks Personal “Wellbeing” of New Britain Residents Low

A regional study about the level of “wellbeing” in Greater Hartford communities identified New Britain residents as having an especially low rate of “personal wellbeing”.

New Britain was found to have a far lower Personal Wellbeing Index score in 2021 than the state as a whole or the Greater Hartford region, according to the Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index 2023, from DataHaven with the support of the Hartford Foundation For Public Giving.

New Britain’s score, 360 out of a possible 1,000, was even lower than the City of Hartford, which had a score of 500. Connecticut as a whole was found to have a score of 696, and the Hartford region had a score of 717.

The Personal Wellbeing Index and the Greater Hartford Community Wellbeing Index are published by DataHaven to determine the fairness and wellbeing experienced in the lives of people in the greater Hartford area.

The Personal Wellbeing Index measures, “life satisfaction, self-rated health, anxiety, and happiness,” according to the study authors. DataHaven generates the data by conducting, “live, in-depth interviews with thousands of randomly-selected adults in every Connecticut town.”

The study authors note that,

It is important for policymakers and programs to measure well-being directly, because traditional measures such as income and gross domestic product are unable to capture the importance of so many life experiences.

The study authors compared the Personal Wellbeing Index with another statistic from the study, the Community Wellbeing Index, and found that the two generally correlate together. The study authors noted that,

We find that personal well-being measures—including life satisfaction, self-rated health, anxiety, and happiness—correlate strongly with Community Index scores … In other words, higher levels of personal well-being are associated with greater levels of community well-being, while communities and populations with fewer community resources often report lower levels of personal well-being.

But New Britain was an outlier to this association, having far lower personal wellbeing than would otherwise be expected from the level of its community wellbeing score. People’s individual circumstances in New Britain were found by the study to be even lower than in Hartford, despite the community level data for New Britain being higher than Hartford’s. Both cities’ personal and community scores were far lower than the region or state, as a whole.

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving says that,

Produced for Connecticut regions including Greater Hartford, Greater New Haven and Fairfield County, The Community Wellbeing Index reports contain more than 70 data graphics across eight chapters. It incorporates federal, state, and local data sources, including the DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey, to describe quality life in towns across the state

DataHaven says its,

mission is to empower people to create thriving communities by collecting and ensuring access to data on well-being, equity, and quality of life. We have served Connecticut as a nonprofit organization since 1992, working with many partners to develop reports, tools, and technical assistance programs that make information more useful to local communities.

The Hartford Foundation For Public Giving says that, “We are the community foundation for the Capitol Region of Connecticut—your community foundation—committed to bringing together resources, both human and financial, to improve the lives of all residents.”

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